Method and apparatus for determining information about a drug-containing vessel
AssigneeAres Trading S.A.
InventorsRobert JONES, Robert F. MARCHINGTON, David RIMMER, Bogdan-Alexandru COCIU, William D. ADDISON, Matthew J. HAYES, Ruairi DUFFY, Quentin LE MASNE
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Abstract
Information about a drug-containing vessel is determined by capturing image data of the curved surface of a cylindrical portion of a drug-containing vessel. The image data is unfurled from around the curved surface, binarised, and a template matching algorithm employed to determine that the label information comprises candidate information about the vessel and/or the drug.
Claims15
A computer-implemented method of determining information about a drug-containing vessel and/or the drug itself, wherein the vessel is located within a medical device and has a cylindrical portion bearing label information about the vessel and/or the drug, the method comprising:
- capturing, using one or more imaging devices contained within the medical device, image data of the curved surface of the cylindrical portion;
- creating a two-dimensional unfurled image from the image data by identifying where points in the unfurled image would map to on the curved surface if the unfurled image was furled about the curved surface;
- binarising the unfurled image;
- applying a template matching algorithm to the binarised image to determine the presence in the binarised image of one or more templates corresponding to candidate information about the vessel and/or the drug;
- and
- based on the determination of the presence in the binarised image of the one or more templates, determining that the label information comprises the candidate information.
The method of any preceding claim, wherein the creation of the two-dimensional unfurled image is performed so that the image data that was captured by each imaging device is only unfurled in respect of the portion of the curved surface of the cylindrical portion that was directly observable by that imaging device at the time of capturing.
The method of any preceding claim, wherein the binarising comprises:
- converting the unfurled image into a greyscale image;
- and
- creating the binarised image such that each pixel has a first value if the greyscale value of that pixel of the greyscale image data is less than a local mean intensity threshold and otherwise has a second value.
The method of any preceding claim, further comprising:
- applying a template matching algorithm to the unfurled image to determine the presence in the binarised image of one or more coloured templates corresponding to coloured candidate information about the vessel and/or the drug;
- and
- based on the determination of the presence in the unfurled image of the one or more coloured templates, determining that the label information comprises the coloured candidate information.
The method of any preceding claim, wherein the template matching algorithm is arranged to evaluate each of the templates against the binarised image by evaluating a plurality of tile portions of the respective template against the binarised image.
The method of any preceding claim, wherein the vessel is a syringe or cartridge.
The method of any preceding claim, further comprising using a light source within the medical device to illuminate the curved surface of the cylindrical portion.
A computer-implemented method of determining information about a drug-containing vessel and/or the drug itself, wherein the vessel is located within a medical device and has a cylindrical portion bearing label information about the vessel and/or the drug, the method comprising:
- capturing, using one or more imaging devices contained within the medical device, image data of the curved surface of the cylindrical portion;
- creating a two-dimensional unfurled image from the image data by identifying where points in the unfurled image would map to on the curved surface if the unfurled image was furled about the curved surface;
- reading the label information from the unfurled image.
A medical device arranged to perform the method of any preceding claim, optionally wherein the one or more imaging devices are cameras.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.